Report: Gypsies Real

Without being groundbreaking or even particularly noteworthy in terms of originality, Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell is totally sweet. The film excels within the standard-issue horror-movie, “I got cursed by a Gypsy and now all kinds of scary shit is happening” scenario. The main character, Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), is well defined in her perfect ordinariness, the demons look cool and pacing of the film is great, with the creatures things popping in and out of all corners of the screen making you jump at just the right time. While I enjoyed the film immensely, one thing remained in the back of my mind throughout: Gypsies are real, and it seems weird that they continue to be depicted as the horror genre’s go-to bringers of terror.

Drag Me to Hell is hardly the first movie to utilize the mysterious nature of the Roma People as an instrument of fear; Terrifying mayhem occurs onscreen as the result of Gypsy curses everywhere, from Stephen King’s Thinner to the Tom Hanks-Penny Marshall classic, Big (although the latter was a robot Gypsy; still fair game). I’m not offended by the overt stereotyping of Roma People in film, I just think it’s interesting that it occurs so frequently and that no one seems to care. Michael Bay’s latest piece of shit, the Transformers sequel, has drawn criticism for two robot characters who speak in Ebonics, similar to the negative attention garnered by Star Wars: Episode I for it’s own supposed racial caricature, Jar-Jar Binks, while any of the numerous Jewish media watchdog groups throw a hissy fit about anything resembling what they believe to be negative portrayals of Jews – including real-life Jew Larry David’s caricature of himself on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

I guess it could be the case that Roma media advocacy groups just aren’t powerful enough to voice their concerns, or maybe they just don’t care about being stereotyped; I wouldn’t (and don’t). It just seems interesting that this one ethnic group somehow slipped under the radar of political correctness. You can be sure that papers would be abuzz with criticism if horror movies began featuring Gentiles cursed by sinister Jew Magic or Negro Spells.

Artwork by Eban Singer